Secretary
of State Brian Kemp today announced his office has secured all 12 discs sent
from his office that contained personally identifiable voter information.

“As
of 11 a.m., all 12 discs containing sensitive voter information have been
retrieved or destroyed,” Kemp said. “My staff has verified with the media
outlets and political parties that received these discs that they have not
copied or otherwise disseminated confidential voter data to outside sources. I
am confident that our voters’ personal information has not been compromised.”

“I
take full responsibility for this mistake and have taken immediate action to
resolve it. The employee at fault has been fired, and I have put in place
additional safeguards effective immediately to ensure this situation does not
happen again.”

“Moving
forward, the secure site for voter data downloads will be locked to prevent
changes by any employee other than the Chief Information Officer acting at my
direction. Further, a three-part check will be required before a disc
containing the statewide voter file can be released to the public. It is my top
priority to protect the personal information of all Georgians.”

For
additional information or assistance, voters can contact the Secretary of State
Office’s dedicated hotline for this issue: 404-654-6045.

The
following statement detailing this situation was posted on Kemp’s website earlier today:

On
Friday, November 13, 2015, my office learned that voters’ personal information
was inadvertently included on a statewide voter file that was sent to twelve
groups on October 13, 2015.

As
a standard practice, these twelve groups, comprised of Georgia's news media and
political parties, receive a computer disk with an updated list of all of
Georgia's registered voters every month. This information is available to them
per existing Georgia law.

However,
in October, a clerical error in the IT Division led to these discs containing
personal identifying information that should not have been
included. Other than the employee who made the error, this error was
not known until Friday, November 13, 2015 when an organization that received a
disc notified the Secretary of State’s office. The IT employee responsible has
been fired for breaking internal rules governing the release of this
information.

Upon
learning of this mistake, my office took immediate action to retrieve the discs
and to confirm that the recipients had not copied or otherwise disseminated the
data.

All
twelve discs have been accounted for. Each recipient, including the Georgia
Republican Party and the Georgia Democratic Party, has confirmed that the data
was not retained or disseminated to any outside parties.

To
reiterate, the Georgia Voter Registration System was not breached. The system
has been and remains secure. This issue was caused by a clerical error that has
been remedied. While information was included on those twelve discs that should
not have been, we are confident that the information has now been secured.

I
take full responsibility for this mistake and want to assure Georgia's citizens
that it is my top priority to protect their personal information. I have put in
place additional safeguards to insure this situation does not happen again.

Brian
Kemp has been Secretary of State since January 2010. Among the office’s
wide-ranging responsibilities, the Secretary of State is charged with
conducting secure, accessible, and fair elections, the registration of
corporations, and the regulation of securities, charities, and professional
license holders.